Iran is ramping up online activities that appear aimed at influencing the U. S. election, in one case a presidential crusade with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday.
Iranian actors have also spent the past few months creating news sites and posing as activists, laying the groundwork to stoke the department and potentially influence the American electorate this fall, especially in key states, the tech giant found.
The findings from Microsoft’s latest risk report show how Iran, which actively participated in the recent US election, is evolving its tactics in preparation for another election that could have global implications. The report goes beyond anything US intelligence officials have revealed. giving explicit examples of the Iranian teams and the moves they have made so far. Iran’s United Nations project has denied any aim to intervene or launch cyberattacks in the US presidential election.
The report does not specify Iran’s intentions; aside from wreaking havoc in the United States, U. S. officials have hinted in the past that Iran is specifically opposed to former President Donald Trump. Officials have also expressed fear about Tehran’s efforts to seek retaliation after a 2020 attack on an Iranian general ordered through Trump. This week, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran accused of conspiring to assassinate several officials. potentially adding Trump.
The report also shows how Russia and China are exploiting American political polarization to convey their own divisive messages in an election year.
Microsoft’s report identifies four examples of recent Iranian activity that the company expects to develop in the run-up to the November elections.
First, in June, an organization connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards targeted a senior official of the U. S. presidential crusade with a phishing email, a form of cyberattack used to gather sensitive information, according to the report, which does not identify which crusade was targeted. Array The organization hid the origin of the email by sending it from the hacked email account of a senior Shapeer advisor, Microsoft said.
A few days later, the Iranian organization attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate, without success, according to Microsoft’s report. The company informed those affected.
For example, an Iranian organization created websites posing as United States-based news sites aimed at voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum, according to the report.
A fake news story aimed at a left-wing audience insults Trump by calling him a “raving lunatic” and suggests he uses drugs, according to the report. Another aimed at attracting Republican readers focuses on LGBTQ issues and gender-affirming surgery.
A third example cited via Microsoft is that Iranian teams are posing as U. S. militants, potentially laying the groundwork for influence operations in the run-up to the election.
Finally, another Iranian organization compromised an account maintained through a government worker in a swing state in May, according to the report. It is unclear whether this cyberattack is similar to election interference efforts.
The U. N. draft Iran emailed The Associated Press a statement: “Iran has been the victim of offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, utility centers and industries. Iran’s cyber functions are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. “There is no goal or plan to release cyberattacks. The United States presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran is not interfering. “
The Microsoft report says that as Iran increases its cyber influence, actors connected to Russia have also targeted their influence campaigns at the US elections, while actors connected to the Chinese Communist Party have benefited from pro-educational protests. -Palestinian and other existing events. United States in an attempt to inflame political tensions in the United States.
Microsoft said it continues to monitor how foreign enemies use generative AI technology. These increasingly reasonable and easily accessible equipment can generate realistic fake images, photographs and videos in seconds, leading to considerations among some experts that they could be used simply to mislead the electorate. this election cycle.
While many countries have experimented with AI in their influencer operations, the company said, those efforts haven’t had much effect so far. The report states that as a result, some actors “have resorted to techniques that have proven effective in the afterlife: undeniable virtual manipulations, misinterpretation of content, and the use of reliable labels or logos on false information. “
Microsoft’s report aligns with recent warnings from U. S. intelligence officials that U. S. adversaries appear intent on sowing false and inflammatory claims on the Internet ahead of the November vote.
Senior intelligence officials said last month that Russia continues to pose the biggest risk when it comes to election disinformation, while there are signs that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is moving cautiously ahead of 2024.
Iran’s efforts appear aimed at weakening the applicants, who are likely to contribute more to escalating tensions with Tehran, the officials said. It’s a description that suits Trump, whose administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the assassination of Iran’s most sensible general.
An update last month from officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security concluded that Tehran’s efforts gave the impression of being designed to weaken Trump.
“Since our last update, the [intelligence community] has noted that Tehran is running to influence the presidential election, most likely because Iranian leaders need to avoid a final outcome that would increase tensions with the United States. ” the official said, adding: “Iran’s preference necessarily reflects its preference not to escalate tensions with the United States, and Iran opposes the candidate who, Iranian leaders, could simply escalate those tensions. “
The officials did not explicitly mention Trump’s crusade and referred to the key findings of the 2020 assessment. They also noted that most of Iran’s online activities, which they said depend on a “vast network” of personalities from the web, aimed to fuel chaos and social divisions.
The influence efforts also coincide with an era of high tensions between Iran and Israel, whose military the United States strongly supports.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last month that the Iranian government had secretly aided American protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. In the report released July 9, Haines said the intelligence network had “observed actors connected to the Iranian government posing as activists online attempting to inspire protests and even provide monetary aid to protesters. “
America’s enemies, including Iran, have long sought to influence American elections. In 2020, teams linked to Iran sent emails to the Democratic electorate with the obvious goal of intimidating them into voting for Trump, intelligence officials said.